A mild exaggeration, common to discussions, heat of the moment.
The point I was trying to make is that most human beings are, in my fallible opinion, unaware that they receive a dose of radiation every-time they step outside. And that radiation isn't magic -> many people have fire-detectors around their homes that contain radioactive substances, yet have never given them reason to worry. In their minds, once something becomes radioactive, it remains so for an eternity, with the same lethality as the day it first became so. When discussing radioactivity with people, in my life, I've felt as some explorers did when encountering a tribe of humans who thought taking pictures of them was stealing their souls. It's a harrowing experience.
" I mean, surely you must know there are different kinds of radiation - those reaching us from the Sun much easier to manage, not really comparable to what is at hand here, not even ionizing (even if UV might slightly resemble such, in its biologically damaging potential; still, much easier manageable)."
Well aware of that fact. However, I intended to keep my post relatively simple, for discussion purposes (the actual implementation, as I suggested, would have the complete set of information). Explaining to people that they already receive a fair amount of radiation on a daily basis from natural sources is key, IMHO, to opening their minds to the eventual understanding that while radiation can be dangerous, it's not magic pixie dust that kills everything it touches.
"Witness how their rhetoric unfolded during Fukushima: at the beginning, we had "so, we have a bit of a situation, X happened, but surely not X+1" - but wait few days or so, and suddenly it was "so, X+1 happened, but surely not X+2"...and repeat few times. Such things don't breed trust, not one bit."
Agreed. There are very few people more annoyed than myself at the repeated cover-ups surrounding this incident. It undermines the public's confidence in such technologies when the industry projects an image more suited to Rich Uncle Moneybags from the Monopoly game.
"The thing with "careful disposal of the waste" - it turned out to be much bigger problem than anticipated; not so much the technical side of it, but political and cost considerations, making the nuclear much less attractive than it seemed, justifiably blunting the early enthusiasm (seriously, look back at those early times, people had a bit insane approach...and what ever happened to "electricity will be so cheap it won't make sense to meter it!!"?)"
Indeed. However, newer reactor designs do not suffer from the earlier design issues, with some of them arguably capable of burning off their own waste.
"And the inverse relation of time vs. the danger of fallout and radioactivity isn't much of a consolation for those in the "wrong" place and time (which could be made somewhat more likely by massive adoption of many miniature reactors - I mean, we are talking here about the approach, costs & responsibility distribution more akin to water or sewerage, in how they are municipality services...how much trust do you really have, in (many!) people at such levels, to not cut corners or be careless?) "
Smaller reactors may have less safety issues than larger ones -> they are, of course, of a different design. But yes, ensuring that the reactors do not suffer from design flaws is, as with any type of power-plant, something to focus on. I would demand that any design that leaves the drawing board be safe enough that a 5-year old could operate it.
"Now, I'm generally the first to lament the colossal waste of one local abortive attempt [wikipedia.org], and I can seriously consider moving to the backyard of a nuclear power plant my place probably needs to build in a decade or two (well, not literal "backyard" if only because that would still be a noisy industrial plant; but many likely benefits all around of such neighborhood, among them possible voluntary expulsion of large part of stupid people)"
That's good. I live down the road from Limerick, which has had a nuclear power-plant operating for many years now. I wish they'd commission a new plant, based off of something other than the light-water / heavy-water reactor types, but thus far, the current reactor hasn't been a problem.
"But don't pretend the devotees (essentially a sort of "nuclear cargo cult") aren't a problem, too - an image one, at least, in the name of willingness to overlook issues."
Perhaps I am a part of that cult; I see great potential in nuclear energy, as well as some possibilities for ridiculous amounts of damage if adequate preventative measures are not taken when using it. I see the current light-water designs,
Come, visit us in the US. The police are allowed to lie to you. There was an article a while back where the police, while interrogating someone, told this someone that his female neighbor had provided them with evidence. She had no idea that the police were using her name as a foil. Guess what happened? This someone had her killed.
No warning, no mention, no possibility to protect herself.
The best part is, the police believe they can lie to the judge. And they do it ALL THE TIME. While on the stand, while requesting warrants...its ridiculous. r/BadCopy_NoDonut is filled with stories, occasionally sensational, where an officer is recorded with someone's cellphone. The officer then testifies in court regarding some case, the video appears, and the judge realizes that the officer has committed perjury. It's not exactly rare, happens several times a week, from the looks of things. LEO = Super-liar.
Fear, justified or not, was the hold-up. The original light-water reactors have some...issues. To run one, you need qualified staff (supposedly Three-Mile was hiring high-school students (or someone equally unqualified) to run their plant, at the time of the incident, I imagine as a cost-cutting measure), and you need to use quality building materials (do not scrimp, and I'd favor capital punishment for any contractor who is caught using lower-grade materials while pocketing the difference; you probably want some more than low-grade cement / concrete for the outer shell, and a substitution here by less scrupulous people is a serious concern). As for the components here, Chernobyl suffered from, among other things, an untested emergency cooling system component (I believe it was a turbine or pump) which failed at a critical moment (it was shipped, apparently without adequate testing, so quickly, so that the staff at the manufacturing plant could declare a 'Worker's Victory' and claim their Christmas bonuses).
As for these micro-reactors, they are potentially a good idea. Uranium is relatively inexpensive these days, and the primary target for an environmentally sound operation is the careful disposal of the waste. However, before they are put into use, I'd advocate bringing up the general population to some level of actual understanding regarding nuclear fission reactions -> there is a lot if disinformation out there regarding nuclear fission, and it's treated as magic by the populace. The only cure for ignorance, which breeds fear, is information. Show them how hard it is for something to undergo an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction, show them how the danger of fallout and radioactivity is inversely related to time. Explain to them what a rem is, and how the sun gives you more radiation in a day than most people will experience, with the exception of medical imaging devices and flying on high-altitude airplanes, throughout their lives. And above all, no lies. No propaganda. Just the truth, detailing what we do know, what we do not know, and where any potential problems may be.
Because the manufacturers for various laptop components haven't discovered yet how profitable it might be to sell directly to techs. Cutting out the middle man is almost always more profitable for the people on either side. The manufacturers get a higher profit per board, and techs get lower prices.
And it's not like it would be difficult to design a form factor for laptops. Create two, maybe three board sizes, LaptopTX-XL (Desktop Replacement, as XL = Extra Large), LaptopTX (Standard), and MicroLaptopTX (Smaller / Mini / Netbook). As a general rule, in order to keep things sane with the infinite variations of cases / shells for laptops, do not attach any connectors directly to the board; just put on some headers: a few USB headers, a Firewire header, eSata header, and so on. The system builder can then route the headers to the actual connectors, where-ever it is appropriate. It also cuts down on costs for the motherboard manufacturer.
As for the laptop cases / shells, designing things like regular cases is a great idea: include feature-filled and blank faceplates (for the various connectors). If your motherboard supports 8 USB connectors, then use all 8 that the shell provides. If not, use however many you want, and keep the blank faceplates on those you do not.
As for the video card / sound card components, a variant of a pci-express slot, with a designated size (guaranteed to allow for at least 5' x 7' for video cards, 2' x 3' for sound cards), or something like that, so video / sound card manufacturers can standardize. Again, here you do not want the manufacturers providing the actual connectors, just headers.
In terms of batteries, again, you can work off of a few standards. Hypothetically speaking, the case / shell itself would determine which battery you would use (as they come in various shapes), but there is room for some variations in there (6-cell, 8-cell, 12-cell, and so on).
As for the cases themselves, this business should be madly profitable. On the desktop / tower market, there are so many variations, yet they all work. Perhaps someone wants a plastic Hello Kitty laptop shell, perhaps they want a Titanium laptop shell, perhaps they want carbon fiber. The only major thing they will have to slightly worry about is heat, and allowing for proper routing of it inside the case (they will want some vents).
As for the LCD screens, standardizing on a few sizes isn't a bad thing (with regards to laptops i.e. no 12.3", 12.35", 12.4" screen sizes, but perhaps something like.5" increments or what have you). And even if the sizes are slightly variant, buying an oversize shell and putting in some filler around the screen might work.
In women's defense, they did kind of get screwed over in the recent, but lengthy past. However, in today's society, men are getting screwed over. In either case, neither gender wants to get screwed over, and both, tacitly speaking, want, if any, some injustice in their favor.
Matriarchal and Patriarchal societies have existed for quite some time. The previous swing was for a Patriarchal society, now it's for a Matriarchal society. The abuses / grievances of men will continue to increase and pile up, as they have in times past, until the pendulum swings back in their favor.
Reality dictates that each gender is stuck with the other; they can't really continue without each other (not that extremists on other side aren't coveting the day that they can purge the earth of the genetic baggage / sinners). So, like the holding of the presidential office, the office holder is swept in under a majority vote until enough screw-ups occur, then swept out. Neither gender, in the history of the human race, has ever-succeeded staying in permanently (and there have been numerous swings of this pendulum). The best part is, each gender is blind to biases / needs / what have you of the other, so no perfect candidate will ever be found. Arguably, monarchies have tried to deal with this problem (King & Queen, sharing power) but that becomes complicated. I think even the Egyptians attempted a rather unique fix, as one of their pharaohs was either female or a hermaphrodite (he / she / it got to wear a fake beard).
Each gender increase its own power at the expense of the other, while throwing the other gender's claims of bias / inequality under the bus. Like playing King of the Hill.
I'm going to go with unrealized gains go to the creator of the work in question, but I am equally as curious as you are. When it comes to Intellectual Property law, I would think that society cares more for the inventor (who knows how to build sh*t) than the person trying to shake them down; a pissed-off inventor would gladly die with all the knowledge in his / her head if society were stupid enough to try and demand that his / her gains be taken away. From society's standpoint, a new invention is worth more (to everyone sitting on the bench and the jury) than the emotional damages that someone may or may not be attempting to use to get more than their fair share. That's reality.
The judge, among other things, will be thinking of his age during the case, perhaps looking down at the liver spots on his hands (they weren't there a few years ago, he ponders...) and how cancer runs in his family. He'll be thinking how nice it would be to not go the way his father and grandfather did. He will look down at the inventor, who is pursing (in this cherry-picked case) a new cure for cancer, and then at the spouse who has already taken away his or her house & kids. He will think deeply about how every moment the inventor is tied up in this court case, he isn't working on that cure; he will also be aware that with the remaining assets that the inventor has left, the inventor may be forced to sell his equipment if he loses much more. The other side may offer that a Pharmaceutical company is more than willing to purchase the research and what not at some fire-sale price; however, that will inevitably delay the possible cure even longer. What more, the judge knows, having spent more than thirty years on the bench, that cures, like money, tend to get lost in all the paperwork, only resurfacing, if at all, many years later. He will look down, as if in a daze or experiencing deja vu, and watch as the prosecutor / plaintiff does his schtick, trying to rally the jury to his side, while pointing to a spouse in tears, and children dolled up in their Sunday best, recounting various events that are designed to spark emotional discontent, as the inventor, with his / her face in his / her hands, and his / her attorney, watch the apocalypse unfold; the price of emotional damages is fairly rich today, going for $400 million, and the plaintiff's attorney has only the thoughts of gold coins running through his fingers as he spins his story, pausing here and there for dramatic effect. The judge will think, almost reflectively, almost placidly, that even if he does succumb to the disease that claimed his forefathers, perhaps, perhaps his children will not. He then turns, to look at the jury, as their eyes and ears eagerly lap up the plaintiff attorney's words, seeing daggers begin to form in those eyes as they focus on the inventor and his attorney, and realizes that he is party to his own death. He is a judge, he has lived by society's laws his entire life, he believes in them, he knows many of them and their reasonings by heart, he has often cited them and his service in the armed forces when handing down judgements...and yet, he realizes that he can do nothing to stop the train wreck before his eyes. The plaintiff will win, the research will be sold, money will be distributed, and the cure will disappear. The system he had so long supported, had betrayed him when he needed it most. That cure, if and when it would resurface, would become a treatment, a diluted / tweaked version, which would cost more than a year's wages, and its purported efficacy would be only slightly better than a placebo. As he lays dying on his death bed, the judge will think back to a time when he served life, and not death, and wonder how he got turned around.
TLDR; The moral of today's story is to not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. I may be wrong.
Well, there in lies the problem. What if you have been working on a new program that is potentially worth a fair amount when it's finished? Does he / she get a copy of your source to sell to the highest bidder? What if he / she purposefully takes a copy, as a personal fuck you, and hands it to your competitors? Copyright would argue that the creator of the code is the sole owner, and marriage laws can die in a fire. However, Intellectual Property appraisal with divorcees could be a significant issue: never underestimate the greed of an ex, or the lawyer she has found. There was this one case, popular years ago, where a company laid claim to the idea in a man's head; if he ever created it (after he left their employment), the company wanted a piece. I believe the courts sided with the company.
Remember, a divorce, despite what others might tell you, is about resources. It's about money. One person might be heart-broken, but the in a society of "no fault" divorces, your recourse may be limited here. In the event of a divorce, it's safe to assume your ex made up his / her mind months ago, and has already moved key assets out of the line of fire: it's an ambush. Quietly recording you, making sure he / she has footage of you yelling at him / her / the kids, just for an extra $$$$ / month...it's a setup, but one apparently allowed by our society. Sometimes it's seen as a 'good thing' -> your husband beats you or your wife is cheating on you, and you have evidence. Sometimes it's just two terrible people sniping at each other. All courtrooms are political theater...the truth is usually lost in it.
So, when dealing with an ex + a divorce, it's safe to assume he / she grew horns / bat wings / tail overnight (and that you're not fond of that sort of thing, internet fetishes being what they are these days...) and hired the Devil himself ( or the Anti-Christ, if the Dark Lord isn't available) to support him / her. In such cases, a Scorched Earth strategy is worth pursing (there is no such thing as a nice divorce, if he / she has already hired a lawyer, and trying to 'get everyone to come to their senses' usually ends up with you in the gutter, or some form of slavery for the rest of your existence). You can, of course, always try counseling, but it's in your best interest to plan for the worst case scenario: assume the worst, prepare for the end, and be happy / surprised if things do not turn down that unlit road.
So yes, go with the pre-nup. It's kind of like insurance: you don't want to ever use it, but if you need it, you need it right then and there; and the penalties for not having it can be severe (forced to pay alimony / child support in excess of your capabilities, jailed repeatedly for your failures, not able to see your kids because he / she engaged you in a loud argument (after having primed you the day before) and getting your "over-reaction" on tape (Exhibit 'A') / all of it, of course, culminating in your suicide). And yes, the judge / jury, at least in the US, is already biased to letting one gender have the kids over the other. The court records do not lie.
That marriage can be treated as the lottery these days...I don't think it's the gays who are destroying the institution of marriage...there might be a reason to the male populace's refusal to 'commit' these days, and it has nothing to do with being dishonorable...it's fear of the consequences of their actions, and how the law will all but kill a man to serve 'social justice.' Might as well be hanging your ass out the side window of a moving car, and into oncoming traffic.
"Or maybe they got tired of adult men who can't even be bothered to change the roll of toilet paper - women do most of the housework in a marriage, even when both work" -> Indeed. However, the standards for house cleanliness are different here. A male can go three months without vacuuming, a female a week. A guy will stack dishes in the sink, and do them once a week...a girl wants them done 15 minutes after you've finished eating. However, in a contrary case, men are typically better at vehicle upkeep, as opposed to women; even if a guy doesn't know how to perform an oil change himself, he does know that one will be needed at some point; among women, on the other hand, you will find a fair amount who have never heard of an 'oil change' nor where / why to acquire one. Hence, if something bothers you that much, you end up doing something about it: that's reality, and it knows no gender bias.
"Or maybe they got tired of the verbal or physical abuse - men are the vast majority of perps, women the vast majority of victims" -> Reported abuse. Unreported estimates have the genders at parity. Why don't more men come forward with these kinds of stories? Because it ranks up there, on the social-empathic scale, with male rape. Even if it happens to you, most people will not believe you, and almost no one will care (some people will even find it funny, especially if it happened to you in a prison; just see if the judge or prison staff care). Just ask yourself this: how many women, do you know, think it's okay to hit men, because it "doesn't hurt them as much."
"Nobody's perfect - but to imply that "a good amount of women" divorce because they are gold-diggers ignores some serious problems." -> Gold-digging is an issue with women, but then chasing younger women (upgrading to a younger model) is a problem with men. At the heart of the matter is that no matter which gender you are, you are all human; and human beings, by their very nature, do everything they can to improve their lives, even at the cost of others. This is not true in all cases, but is a general rule to keep in mind.
When it becomes possible to pick and choose laptop parts the way you do desktops / servers, PC manufacturers are doomed.
Why? Because the ability for a local IT guy to build you exactly what you need / want greatly supersedes the powers of the market research guys at the big corps. Warranty and tech support is the only hold-up at that point.
If the people who make laptop motherboards / cases / video cards would standardize on a layout / form factor, we'd be doing it already.
*Shrugs* Content-enforcement does not, over the long run, keep the economy afloat. It's unfortunate, but that's part of the reason for the limitations on Intellectual Property -> "We will back up your monopoly on this set of works that you have created for a set period of time with all our might, but after that, it's public domain." The copyright owners, however, have gone a little insane here, and have repeatedly changed those terms through successful lobbying. This poses something of a problem, as greed & stupidity know no limits, and taken to its logical extreme, will result in future populaces being implanted with chips in their brains to help them "forget" content.
See, the original design of Intellectual Property was many fold: 1.) It ensured the inventor / creator got paid, which promotes research and development, 2.) It prevents the inventor / creator from going to the grave with their marvelous invention / songs / writings / whatever locked up in their skull (Bob built an amazing machine, but no one knows how, and now Bob is dead; Ashley wrote this incredible song, but never actually wrote it down, for fear someone would copy it), and 3.) It helps grow society / advance it through freedom of invention (each succeeding generation becomes "richer" in culture / ideas / actual wealth than the previous one, on the basis of societal inheritance).
*Facepalms*...*Facepalms more*...I really need to know who thought that this was a good idea. Seriously, you have an incredibly large corporation with a fairly ridiculous amount of resources, and instead of investing time and research looking for a better 3D TV (one without glasses) or trying to move in on the data storage market by inventing a more capable SSD / HD, you come up with an electrical outlet that charges people for their usage of electricity? From a small-brained, shake-the-customer-down-like-he's-having-a-seizure for petty cash, perspective, that's positively brilliant! People will begin installing them everywhere (streets, the wilderness, who cares?), to try and get on the "energy outlet rent" train to easy street! And it's going to be awesome for the United States and select portions of Europe currently undergoing an energy crisis -> I'm sure their populaces will greet this idea with open arms and banners proclaiming the sheer glory of not only paying out the ass for oil & being on the hook (taxpayer-wise) for various failed green-power initiatives, but also for being nickle-and-dimed when they use their hotel room's outlets to charge their laptops. They should go right ahead, and install these kinds of outlets in public places, with set rates and what not, not unlike the private ATM machine craze that swept the nation a few years ago.
And why not charge people for the toilet paper they use as well? You could install toilet paper dispensers in the restrooms, right next to the toilets, and charge people a quarter / square (why not also put a slot for a credit card on there, right? Minimum charge $2.00). Think of all the money that could be made! And let's be honest, it's not like someone's going to get up and leave without wiping their ass! You've got the marketplace cornered! Bonuses for everyone!
It's like rubbing salt into someone's wounds. Might as well bring up a family death during a birthday party. It's odd, but I remember a time when Sony would actually create products that didn't leave the populace cowering in terror.
A DDOS attack isn't hacking / cracking a server. It's the real-life equivalent of staging a flash mob (which in of themselves are not illegal).
A DDOS attack is simply sending so many requests for information to a server that it completely fills the server's queue. Since there are so many requests, the server eventually "gives up" trying to service them all. Hence its name -> Distributed Denial Of Service. The Distributed part implies that it's more than one machine doing it. You can achieve similar results with a misconfigured computer / router (hence IT's first question when something breaks -> "Is it because of something I did?").
Hacking / cracking a server requires actually compromising the server, in whole or in part. If someone had managed to log into the CIA's web server, and began serving up something tasteful on their front page, like pr0n or mp3s, then yes, that would constitute hacking / cracking.
However, I will note that DDOS attacks are annoying as hell. The must successful design / system I have heard of for dealing with them involved over-sized pipes, a set of redundancies, and blocking the IPs that the attacks were originating from. Not full-proof, but it apparently did work.
And yes, while wandering around on 4chan / IRC saying "We did it" isn't advisable, it's not terribly difficult to know who was involved (given the level of complexity here, or so I would think). Even with forged address headers, it's not like the CIA can't Jacques Cousteau their way up the pipes until they find their 'attackers.'
No, but you can read it, and begin typing a response in Notepad, or whatever your OS's equivalent is, then copy / paste it into a comment when the post makes the front page. Not exactly a foreign concept...I've performed something similar when dealing with online classes (textboxen were not re-sizable at the time).
The point is, even without being a/. subscriber, you can see what articles are bubbling in the queue, and have a good 15-30 minutes to fully read the post and begin working on a response.
Reddit, while privately owned, enjoys its popularity (and cash flow) due to its relatively open policies regarding speech. It's an online discussion site: that's what people do on there, they post some content, and they discuss it. The mods are tasked with keeping spam at a minimum / ensuring that each subreddit contains material actually on topic or in the spirit of things.
When it begins deciding what stays and what goes, not on the basis legal / illegal, but on the basis of what people might be doing / thinking, it sends a cold wind throughout the site. Today this issue (which everyone will nod their heads, and say is an awesome idea), tomorrow it will be NSFW posts (which everyone will nod their heads, and say is an awesome idea), then it will be the Ponies subreddit (because grown men interested in that kind of stuff is weird...probably thinking about raping a child / pulling off a bank heist / terrorism or something), then it will be the Science / Pics / Economics / Star Wars subreddits (because pictures might not be safe for some of Reddit's viewers, and the others because who has time to read that kind of stuff? The science thing because they might have some information on how to build a bomb, the Star Wars because it promotes violence, and Economics because it promotes unrest with information about the health of our fair country), and so on.
Some people see it as bringing "morality" to the site, others see it as a prelude to a new Dark Age / witch-hunts. Guess which group is typically right? That's correct, the pessimists (studies have shown they live longer).
But more importantly, it'll eventually kill Reddit. As/. & Kuro5hin have experienced, when enough of their user-base gets pissed about constantly being trolled / down-voted / not being able to discuss topics, however weird or irrelevant, an exodus is in the making. A few at first, a few more later, then suddenly the traffic is dropping by several percent a month, and in a few years, the site is all but dead. Disagree with me as you like, (and I may be down-voted for saying this) but/. has been hurting in terms of the quality of its comments and the quantity of its readership. There was a time when duplicated postings got 400 remarks about the mods being asleep; even accounting for their new tag system, you don't really see that anymore. http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot.org
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A mild exaggeration, common to discussions, heat of the moment.
The point I was trying to make is that most human beings are, in my fallible opinion, unaware that they receive a dose of radiation every-time they step outside. And that radiation isn't magic -> many people have fire-detectors around their homes that contain radioactive substances, yet have never given them reason to worry. In their minds, once something becomes radioactive, it remains so for an eternity, with the same lethality as the day it first became so. When discussing radioactivity with people, in my life, I've felt as some explorers did when encountering a tribe of humans who thought taking pictures of them was stealing their souls. It's a harrowing experience.
" I mean, surely you must know there are different kinds of radiation - those reaching us from the Sun much easier to manage, not really comparable to what is at hand here, not even ionizing (even if UV might slightly resemble such, in its biologically damaging potential; still, much easier manageable)."
Well aware of that fact. However, I intended to keep my post relatively simple, for discussion purposes (the actual implementation, as I suggested, would have the complete set of information). Explaining to people that they already receive a fair amount of radiation on a daily basis from natural sources is key, IMHO, to opening their minds to the eventual understanding that while radiation can be dangerous, it's not magic pixie dust that kills everything it touches.
"Witness how their rhetoric unfolded during Fukushima: at the beginning, we had "so, we have a bit of a situation, X happened, but surely not X+1" - but wait few days or so, and suddenly it was "so, X+1 happened, but surely not X+2" ...and repeat few times. Such things don't breed trust, not one bit."
Agreed. There are very few people more annoyed than myself at the repeated cover-ups surrounding this incident. It undermines the public's confidence in such technologies when the industry projects an image more suited to Rich Uncle Moneybags from the Monopoly game.
"The thing with "careful disposal of the waste" - it turned out to be much bigger problem than anticipated; not so much the technical side of it, but political and cost considerations, making the nuclear much less attractive than it seemed, justifiably blunting the early enthusiasm (seriously, look back at those early times, people had a bit insane approach ...and what ever happened to "electricity will be so cheap it won't make sense to meter it!!"?)"
Indeed. However, newer reactor designs do not suffer from the earlier design issues, with some of them arguably capable of burning off their own waste.
"And the inverse relation of time vs. the danger of fallout and radioactivity isn't much of a consolation for those in the "wrong" place and time (which could be made somewhat more likely by massive adoption of many miniature reactors - I mean, we are talking here about the approach, costs & responsibility distribution more akin to water or sewerage, in how they are municipality services ...how much trust do you really have, in (many!) people at such levels, to not cut corners or be careless?) "
Smaller reactors may have less safety issues than larger ones -> they are, of course, of a different design. But yes, ensuring that the reactors do not suffer from design flaws is, as with any type of power-plant, something to focus on. I would demand that any design that leaves the drawing board be safe enough that a 5-year old could operate it.
"Now, I'm generally the first to lament the colossal waste of one local abortive attempt [wikipedia.org], and I can seriously consider moving to the backyard of a nuclear power plant my place probably needs to build in a decade or two (well, not literal "backyard" if only because that would still be a noisy industrial plant; but many likely benefits all around of such neighborhood, among them possible voluntary expulsion of large part of stupid people)"
That's good. I live down the road from Limerick, which has had a nuclear power-plant operating for many years now. I wish they'd commission a new plant, based off of something other than the light-water / heavy-water reactor types, but thus far, the current reactor hasn't been a problem.
"But don't pretend the devotees (essentially a sort of "nuclear cargo cult") aren't a problem, too - an image one, at least, in the name of willingness to overlook issues."
Perhaps I am a part of that cult; I see great potential in nuclear energy, as well as some possibilities for ridiculous amounts of damage if adequate preventative measures are not taken when using it. I see the current light-water designs,
How could this possibly backfire?
Come, visit us in the US. The police are allowed to lie to you. There was an article a while back where the police, while interrogating someone, told this someone that his female neighbor had provided them with evidence. She had no idea that the police were using her name as a foil. Guess what happened? This someone had her killed.
No warning, no mention, no possibility to protect herself.
The best part is, the police believe they can lie to the judge. And they do it ALL THE TIME. While on the stand, while requesting warrants...its ridiculous. r/BadCopy_NoDonut is filled with stories, occasionally sensational, where an officer is recorded with someone's cellphone. The officer then testifies in court regarding some case, the video appears, and the judge realizes that the officer has committed perjury. It's not exactly rare, happens several times a week, from the looks of things. LEO = Super-liar.
Fear, justified or not, was the hold-up. The original light-water reactors have some...issues. To run one, you need qualified staff (supposedly Three-Mile was hiring high-school students (or someone equally unqualified) to run their plant, at the time of the incident, I imagine as a cost-cutting measure), and you need to use quality building materials (do not scrimp, and I'd favor capital punishment for any contractor who is caught using lower-grade materials while pocketing the difference; you probably want some more than low-grade cement / concrete for the outer shell, and a substitution here by less scrupulous people is a serious concern). As for the components here, Chernobyl suffered from, among other things, an untested emergency cooling system component (I believe it was a turbine or pump) which failed at a critical moment (it was shipped, apparently without adequate testing, so quickly, so that the staff at the manufacturing plant could declare a 'Worker's Victory' and claim their Christmas bonuses).
As for these micro-reactors, they are potentially a good idea. Uranium is relatively inexpensive these days, and the primary target for an environmentally sound operation is the careful disposal of the waste. However, before they are put into use, I'd advocate bringing up the general population to some level of actual understanding regarding nuclear fission reactions -> there is a lot if disinformation out there regarding nuclear fission, and it's treated as magic by the populace. The only cure for ignorance, which breeds fear, is information. Show them how hard it is for something to undergo an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction, show them how the danger of fallout and radioactivity is inversely related to time. Explain to them what a rem is, and how the sun gives you more radiation in a day than most people will experience, with the exception of medical imaging devices and flying on high-altitude airplanes, throughout their lives. And above all, no lies. No propaganda. Just the truth, detailing what we do know, what we do not know, and where any potential problems may be.
Because the manufacturers for various laptop components haven't discovered yet how profitable it might be to sell directly to techs. Cutting out the middle man is almost always more profitable for the people on either side. The manufacturers get a higher profit per board, and techs get lower prices.
And it's not like it would be difficult to design a form factor for laptops. Create two, maybe three board sizes, LaptopTX-XL (Desktop Replacement, as XL = Extra Large), LaptopTX (Standard), and MicroLaptopTX (Smaller / Mini / Netbook). As a general rule, in order to keep things sane with the infinite variations of cases / shells for laptops, do not attach any connectors directly to the board; just put on some headers: a few USB headers, a Firewire header, eSata header, and so on. The system builder can then route the headers to the actual connectors, where-ever it is appropriate. It also cuts down on costs for the motherboard manufacturer.
As for the laptop cases / shells, designing things like regular cases is a great idea: include feature-filled and blank faceplates (for the various connectors). If your motherboard supports 8 USB connectors, then use all 8 that the shell provides. If not, use however many you want, and keep the blank faceplates on those you do not.
As for the video card / sound card components, a variant of a pci-express slot, with a designated size (guaranteed to allow for at least 5' x 7' for video cards, 2' x 3' for sound cards), or something like that, so video / sound card manufacturers can standardize. Again, here you do not want the manufacturers providing the actual connectors, just headers.
In terms of batteries, again, you can work off of a few standards. Hypothetically speaking, the case / shell itself would determine which battery you would use (as they come in various shapes), but there is room for some variations in there (6-cell, 8-cell, 12-cell, and so on).
As for the cases themselves, this business should be madly profitable. On the desktop / tower market, there are so many variations, yet they all work. Perhaps someone wants a plastic Hello Kitty laptop shell, perhaps they want a Titanium laptop shell, perhaps they want carbon fiber. The only major thing they will have to slightly worry about is heat, and allowing for proper routing of it inside the case (they will want some vents).
As for the LCD screens, standardizing on a few sizes isn't a bad thing (with regards to laptops i.e. no 12.3", 12.35", 12.4" screen sizes, but perhaps something like .5" increments or what have you). And even if the sizes are slightly variant, buying an oversize shell and putting in some filler around the screen might work.
In women's defense, they did kind of get screwed over in the recent, but lengthy past. However, in today's society, men are getting screwed over. In either case, neither gender wants to get screwed over, and both, tacitly speaking, want, if any, some injustice in their favor.
Matriarchal and Patriarchal societies have existed for quite some time. The previous swing was for a Patriarchal society, now it's for a Matriarchal society. The abuses / grievances of men will continue to increase and pile up, as they have in times past, until the pendulum swings back in their favor.
Reality dictates that each gender is stuck with the other; they can't really continue without each other (not that extremists on other side aren't coveting the day that they can purge the earth of the genetic baggage / sinners). So, like the holding of the presidential office, the office holder is swept in under a majority vote until enough screw-ups occur, then swept out. Neither gender, in the history of the human race, has ever-succeeded staying in permanently (and there have been numerous swings of this pendulum). The best part is, each gender is blind to biases / needs / what have you of the other, so no perfect candidate will ever be found. Arguably, monarchies have tried to deal with this problem (King & Queen, sharing power) but that becomes complicated. I think even the Egyptians attempted a rather unique fix, as one of their pharaohs was either female or a hermaphrodite (he / she / it got to wear a fake beard).
Each gender increase its own power at the expense of the other, while throwing the other gender's claims of bias / inequality under the bus. Like playing King of the Hill.
Seems about right.
I'm going to go with unrealized gains go to the creator of the work in question, but I am equally as curious as you are. When it comes to Intellectual Property law, I would think that society cares more for the inventor (who knows how to build sh*t) than the person trying to shake them down; a pissed-off inventor would gladly die with all the knowledge in his / her head if society were stupid enough to try and demand that his / her gains be taken away. From society's standpoint, a new invention is worth more (to everyone sitting on the bench and the jury) than the emotional damages that someone may or may not be attempting to use to get more than their fair share. That's reality.
The judge, among other things, will be thinking of his age during the case, perhaps looking down at the liver spots on his hands (they weren't there a few years ago, he ponders...) and how cancer runs in his family. He'll be thinking how nice it would be to not go the way his father and grandfather did. He will look down at the inventor, who is pursing (in this cherry-picked case) a new cure for cancer, and then at the spouse who has already taken away his or her house & kids. He will think deeply about how every moment the inventor is tied up in this court case, he isn't working on that cure; he will also be aware that with the remaining assets that the inventor has left, the inventor may be forced to sell his equipment if he loses much more. The other side may offer that a Pharmaceutical company is more than willing to purchase the research and what not at some fire-sale price; however, that will inevitably delay the possible cure even longer. What more, the judge knows, having spent more than thirty years on the bench, that cures, like money, tend to get lost in all the paperwork, only resurfacing, if at all, many years later. He will look down, as if in a daze or experiencing deja vu, and watch as the prosecutor / plaintiff does his schtick, trying to rally the jury to his side, while pointing to a spouse in tears, and children dolled up in their Sunday best, recounting various events that are designed to spark emotional discontent, as the inventor, with his / her face in his / her hands, and his / her attorney, watch the apocalypse unfold; the price of emotional damages is fairly rich today, going for $400 million, and the plaintiff's attorney has only the thoughts of gold coins running through his fingers as he spins his story, pausing here and there for dramatic effect. The judge will think, almost reflectively, almost placidly, that even if he does succumb to the disease that claimed his forefathers, perhaps, perhaps his children will not. He then turns, to look at the jury, as their eyes and ears eagerly lap up the plaintiff attorney's words, seeing daggers begin to form in those eyes as they focus on the inventor and his attorney, and realizes that he is party to his own death. He is a judge, he has lived by society's laws his entire life, he believes in them, he knows many of them and their reasonings by heart, he has often cited them and his service in the armed forces when handing down judgements...and yet, he realizes that he can do nothing to stop the train wreck before his eyes. The plaintiff will win, the research will be sold, money will be distributed, and the cure will disappear. The system he had so long supported, had betrayed him when he needed it most. That cure, if and when it would resurface, would become a treatment, a diluted / tweaked version, which would cost more than a year's wages, and its purported efficacy would be only slightly better than a placebo. As he lays dying on his death bed, the judge will think back to a time when he served life, and not death, and wonder how he got turned around.
TLDR; The moral of today's story is to not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. I may be wrong.
Well, there in lies the problem. What if you have been working on a new program that is potentially worth a fair amount when it's finished? Does he / she get a copy of your source to sell to the highest bidder? What if he / she purposefully takes a copy, as a personal fuck you, and hands it to your competitors? Copyright would argue that the creator of the code is the sole owner, and marriage laws can die in a fire. However, Intellectual Property appraisal with divorcees could be a significant issue: never underestimate the greed of an ex, or the lawyer she has found. There was this one case, popular years ago, where a company laid claim to the idea in a man's head; if he ever created it (after he left their employment), the company wanted a piece. I believe the courts sided with the company.
Remember, a divorce, despite what others might tell you, is about resources. It's about money. One person might be heart-broken, but the in a society of "no fault" divorces, your recourse may be limited here. In the event of a divorce, it's safe to assume your ex made up his / her mind months ago, and has already moved key assets out of the line of fire: it's an ambush. Quietly recording you, making sure he / she has footage of you yelling at him / her / the kids, just for an extra $$$$ / month...it's a setup, but one apparently allowed by our society. Sometimes it's seen as a 'good thing' -> your husband beats you or your wife is cheating on you, and you have evidence. Sometimes it's just two terrible people sniping at each other. All courtrooms are political theater...the truth is usually lost in it.
So, when dealing with an ex + a divorce, it's safe to assume he / she grew horns / bat wings / tail overnight (and that you're not fond of that sort of thing, internet fetishes being what they are these days...) and hired the Devil himself ( or the Anti-Christ, if the Dark Lord isn't available) to support him / her. In such cases, a Scorched Earth strategy is worth pursing (there is no such thing as a nice divorce, if he / she has already hired a lawyer, and trying to 'get everyone to come to their senses' usually ends up with you in the gutter, or some form of slavery for the rest of your existence). You can, of course, always try counseling, but it's in your best interest to plan for the worst case scenario: assume the worst, prepare for the end, and be happy / surprised if things do not turn down that unlit road.
So yes, go with the pre-nup. It's kind of like insurance: you don't want to ever use it, but if you need it, you need it right then and there; and the penalties for not having it can be severe (forced to pay alimony / child support in excess of your capabilities, jailed repeatedly for your failures, not able to see your kids because he / she engaged you in a loud argument (after having primed you the day before) and getting your "over-reaction" on tape (Exhibit 'A') / all of it, of course, culminating in your suicide). And yes, the judge / jury, at least in the US, is already biased to letting one gender have the kids over the other. The court records do not lie.
That marriage can be treated as the lottery these days...I don't think it's the gays who are destroying the institution of marriage...there might be a reason to the male populace's refusal to 'commit' these days, and it has nothing to do with being dishonorable...it's fear of the consequences of their actions, and how the law will all but kill a man to serve 'social justice.' Might as well be hanging your ass out the side window of a moving car, and into oncoming traffic.
"Or maybe they got tired of adult men who can't even be bothered to change the roll of toilet paper - women do most of the housework in a marriage, even when both work" -> Indeed. However, the standards for house cleanliness are different here. A male can go three months without vacuuming, a female a week. A guy will stack dishes in the sink, and do them once a week...a girl wants them done 15 minutes after you've finished eating. However, in a contrary case, men are typically better at vehicle upkeep, as opposed to women; even if a guy doesn't know how to perform an oil change himself, he does know that one will be needed at some point; among women, on the other hand, you will find a fair amount who have never heard of an 'oil change' nor where / why to acquire one. Hence, if something bothers you that much, you end up doing something about it: that's reality, and it knows no gender bias.
"Or maybe they got tired of the verbal or physical abuse - men are the vast majority of perps, women the vast majority of victims" -> Reported abuse. Unreported estimates have the genders at parity. Why don't more men come forward with these kinds of stories? Because it ranks up there, on the social-empathic scale, with male rape. Even if it happens to you, most people will not believe you, and almost no one will care (some people will even find it funny, especially if it happened to you in a prison; just see if the judge or prison staff care). Just ask yourself this: how many women, do you know, think it's okay to hit men, because it "doesn't hurt them as much."
"Nobody's perfect - but to imply that "a good amount of women" divorce because they are gold-diggers ignores some serious problems." -> Gold-digging is an issue with women, but then chasing younger women (upgrading to a younger model) is a problem with men. At the heart of the matter is that no matter which gender you are, you are all human; and human beings, by their very nature, do everything they can to improve their lives, even at the cost of others. This is not true in all cases, but is a general rule to keep in mind.
The perversion of our patent system would do so, perhaps. It has been quite functional for over two hundred years now.
But then, greed and stupidity have been busy lately. You can see the devastating effects everywhere.
Laptops.
When it becomes possible to pick and choose laptop parts the way you do desktops / servers, PC manufacturers are doomed.
Why? Because the ability for a local IT guy to build you exactly what you need / want greatly supersedes the powers of the market research guys at the big corps.
Warranty and tech support is the only hold-up at that point.
If the people who make laptop motherboards / cases / video cards would standardize on a layout / form factor, we'd be doing it already.
Hmm. I thought Trade Hill was going down, and the company behind it was putting up a new, compliant website by the end of the month...
*Shrugs* Content-enforcement does not, over the long run, keep the economy afloat. It's unfortunate, but that's part of the reason for the limitations on Intellectual Property -> "We will back up your monopoly on this set of works that you have created for a set period of time with all our might, but after that, it's public domain." The copyright owners, however, have gone a little insane here, and have repeatedly changed those terms through successful lobbying. This poses something of a problem, as greed & stupidity know no limits, and taken to its logical extreme, will result in future populaces being implanted with chips in their brains to help them "forget" content.
See, the original design of Intellectual Property was many fold: 1.) It ensured the inventor / creator got paid, which promotes research and development, 2.) It prevents the inventor / creator from going to the grave with their marvelous invention / songs / writings / whatever locked up in their skull (Bob built an amazing machine, but no one knows how, and now Bob is dead; Ashley wrote this incredible song, but never actually wrote it down, for fear someone would copy it), and 3.) It helps grow society / advance it through freedom of invention (each succeeding generation becomes "richer" in culture / ideas / actual wealth than the previous one, on the basis of societal inheritance).
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the crime did not occur on American soil?
*Facepalms*...*Facepalms more*...I really need to know who thought that this was a good idea. Seriously, you have an incredibly large corporation with a fairly ridiculous amount of resources, and instead of investing time and research looking for a better 3D TV (one without glasses) or trying to move in on the data storage market by inventing a more capable SSD / HD, you come up with an electrical outlet that charges people for their usage of electricity? From a small-brained, shake-the-customer-down-like-he's-having-a-seizure for petty cash, perspective, that's positively brilliant! People will begin installing them everywhere (streets, the wilderness, who cares?), to try and get on the "energy outlet rent" train to easy street! And it's going to be awesome for the United States and select portions of Europe currently undergoing an energy crisis -> I'm sure their populaces will greet this idea with open arms and banners proclaiming the sheer glory of not only paying out the ass for oil & being on the hook (taxpayer-wise) for various failed green-power initiatives, but also for being nickle-and-dimed when they use their hotel room's outlets to charge their laptops. They should go right ahead, and install these kinds of outlets in public places, with set rates and what not, not unlike the private ATM machine craze that swept the nation a few years ago.
And why not charge people for the toilet paper they use as well? You could install toilet paper dispensers in the restrooms, right next to the toilets, and charge people a quarter / square (why not also put a slot for a credit card on there, right? Minimum charge $2.00). Think of all the money that could be made! And let's be honest, it's not like someone's going to get up and leave without wiping their ass! You've got the marketplace cornered! Bonuses for everyone!
It's like rubbing salt into someone's wounds. Might as well bring up a family death during a birthday party. It's odd, but I remember a time when Sony would actually create products that didn't leave the populace cowering in terror.
And if I were the CIA, I wouldn't have my web-servers physically on the same network as the rest of my machines.
Hence the XKCD comic.
A DDOS attack isn't hacking / cracking a server. It's the real-life equivalent of staging a flash mob (which in of themselves are not illegal).
A DDOS attack is simply sending so many requests for information to a server that it completely fills the server's queue. Since there are so many requests, the server eventually "gives up" trying to service them all. Hence its name -> Distributed Denial Of Service. The Distributed part implies that it's more than one machine doing it. You can achieve similar results with a misconfigured computer / router (hence IT's first question when something breaks -> "Is it because of something I did?").
Hacking / cracking a server requires actually compromising the server, in whole or in part. If someone had managed to log into the CIA's web server, and began serving up something tasteful on their front page, like pr0n or mp3s, then yes, that would constitute hacking / cracking.
However, I will note that DDOS attacks are annoying as hell. The must successful design / system I have heard of for dealing with them involved over-sized pipes, a set of redundancies, and blocking the IPs that the attacks were originating from. Not full-proof, but it apparently did work.
And yes, while wandering around on 4chan / IRC saying "We did it" isn't advisable, it's not terribly difficult to know who was involved (given the level of complexity here, or so I would think). Even with forged address headers, it's not like the CIA can't Jacques Cousteau their way up the pipes until they find their 'attackers.'
Ignorance breeds fear -> nothing messes with the human psyche like fear of the unknown.
Hmm. Interesting. One of their models (taken at a quick glance) does support up to 32 GBs of RAM...
Have an HP, not sure I want to take the Mac route. Can they handle more than 8GBs of RAM?
No, but you can read it, and begin typing a response in Notepad, or whatever your OS's equivalent is, then copy / paste it into a comment when the post makes the front page. Not exactly a foreign concept...I've performed something similar when dealing with online classes (textboxen were not re-sizable at the time).
The point is, even without being a /. subscriber, you can see what articles are bubbling in the queue, and have a good 15-30 minutes to fully read the post and begin working on a response.
Reddit, while privately owned, enjoys its popularity (and cash flow) due to its relatively open policies regarding speech. It's an online discussion site: that's what people do on there, they post some content, and they discuss it. The mods are tasked with keeping spam at a minimum / ensuring that each subreddit contains material actually on topic or in the spirit of things.
When it begins deciding what stays and what goes, not on the basis legal / illegal, but on the basis of what people might be doing / thinking, it sends a cold wind throughout the site. Today this issue (which everyone will nod their heads, and say is an awesome idea), tomorrow it will be NSFW posts (which everyone will nod their heads, and say is an awesome idea), then it will be the Ponies subreddit (because grown men interested in that kind of stuff is weird...probably thinking about raping a child / pulling off a bank heist / terrorism or something), then it will be the Science / Pics / Economics / Star Wars subreddits (because pictures might not be safe for some of Reddit's viewers, and the others because who has time to read that kind of stuff? The science thing because they might have some information on how to build a bomb, the Star Wars because it promotes violence, and Economics because it promotes unrest with information about the health of our fair country), and so on.
Some people see it as bringing "morality" to the site, others see it as a prelude to a new Dark Age / witch-hunts. Guess which group is typically right? That's correct, the pessimists (studies have shown they live longer).
But more importantly, it'll eventually kill Reddit. As /. & Kuro5hin have experienced, when enough of their user-base gets pissed about constantly being trolled / down-voted / not being able to discuss topics, however weird or irrelevant, an exodus is in the making. A few at first, a few more later, then suddenly the traffic is dropping by several percent a month, and in a few years, the site is all but dead. Disagree with me as you like, (and I may be down-voted for saying this) but /. has been hurting in terms of the quality of its comments and the quantity of its readership. There was a time when duplicated postings got 400 remarks about the mods being asleep; even accounting for their new tag system, you don't really see that anymore. http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot.org
You know, if you actually get a /. account, and play around with GreaseMonkey, I'm sure you could hide my posts. Then you never have to see them again.